For-Profit Colleges Continue to Harm Poor Students

[ss20ts]

I recently completed my capstone which discussed the differences between Synchronous and Asynchronous learning.

Capella doesn't have physical classrooms for pretty much all their students.  They learn online and some people just are unable to learn online for a variety of reasons such as no discipline, lack of social opportunities, and they prefer campus life.  That's one of the main reasons why completion rates are low for purely online colleges.

People that do well learning online are people that are Introverts, people that can accelerate learning online by not having speed limits set by teachers or other students, and when learning online fits their learning style.

Some people have full-time jobs, families and they can't go and sit in a classroom like a traditional student.  So the opportunity to learn online is their only option.  Otherwise, they may be stuck in their current situation and have trouble moving up in life.

Yes, a lot of traditional colleges now offer online options now but isn't this a response to the free market innovation set by the purely online colleges?  The government certainly did not develop any of the software that is being used in online learning.

People freak out when they see a low completion rate number because they don't understand the reasons behind it.  WGU for example often will make students complete one class online before they allow students to attend their school to weed out people that will quit early.

There are so many forms of online learning and everyone isn't great at all of them! You can have the same format and it love one professor and subject yet struggle with a different professor or different subject. 

Now that I'm in a scheduled format again with discussions and multiple papers due every week, I want out. It's too much to do and deal with life. I LOVED the competency based part of UMPI. I could take as many classes as I wanted - 1 or 2 at a time. Get through them and move on to the next one without multiple discussions and multiple papers in 1 week. There were some aspects I did miss. I wish I had a way to communicate with others who were in the YourPace program especially folks taking the same classes. If nothing else but to say hi you're not alone! Online learning is very lonely. There's a lot of pressure on you to complete a great deal of work in a short amount of time and then you do that over and over for weeks. I can't imagine sitting in a classroom for 15 weeks now learning 1 class. I'd lose my mind! 

People have jobs, families, kids, sickness, pets, holidays, vacations, sports, activities, all kinds of reasons they don't finish a degree. The graduation rates also only count students for 4 or 6 years. If you're a part time student, you won't complete a bachelor's degree in 6 years. You're also not often counted if you go back to school years later and finish your degree. Most online schools are targeting nontraditional students - adults who have jobs, families, responsibilities. Of course they will have much lower and slower graduation rates than b&m schools who focus on 18-22 year olds who have nothing to do in life except play beer pong. Comparing traditional and nontraditional students are like comparing apples to batteries. They only thing they share in common is that they're humans.